Trees On Our Land

We have planted over 700 trees so far, focusing our efforts on legumes in an attempt regenerate the soil. We used the book “Forest Trees of the Western Ghats, Eastern Ghats and Deccan Plateau” by Neginhal extensively.

Local Name	Scientific Name	Legume or not	Growth	Function/Value
Cluster Bamboo			fast growing	Timber, Wind break
Lime				Fruit
Sweet Lime				Fruit
Vilvam, Bael, Wood apple	Aegle marmelos			Fruit
Ram phal	Annona reticulate			Fruit
Seetha phal	Annona squamosa			Fruit
Jack fruit	Artocarpus heterophyllus			Fruit
Neem	Azadirachta indica			Timber, mulch, medicinal
Kattuva	Albizia lebbeck	legume	fast growing	Timber
Mandarai	Bauhinia purpurea	legume	fast growing?
Indian palm, Toddy palm, Palmyra palm	Borassus flabellifer			Timber
Porasu, Flame of the forest	Butea monosperma	legume	fast growing?
Sara konnai	Cassia fistula
Narthang-kai	Citrus medica			Fruit (pickled)
Coconut	Cocos nucifera			Fruit
Eetti	Dalbergia latifolia	legume	fast growing	Timber
Sheesham	Dalbergia sisoo	legume	fast growing	Timber
Rubber Tree	Gliricidia sepium	Legume	fast growing	Mulch
Kumizh	Gmelina arborea			Wild fruit
Veppalai	Holarrhena pubescens
Gumpuni	Lannea coromandelica		fast growing	Mulch
Marudani, Mehndi, Henna	Lawsonia inermis
Su-babool	Leucaena leucocephala	Legume	fast growing	Mulch
Illupai	Madhuca longifolia			Timber
Mango	Mangifera indica			Fruit
Chiku, sapota	Manilkara zapota			Fruit
Malai vembu	Melia dubia		fast growing?	Avenue tree,
Mara malli	Millingtonia hortensis		fast growing	Avenue tree, wind break
Muddy	Morinda pubescens		fast growing
Murungai	Morinda oleifera	Legume	fast growing	Fruit, Edible leaves
Curry leaves tree	Murraya koenigii			Edible leaves
Amla, Indian gooseberry, Nellikkai	Phyllanthus emblica			Fruit
Kodukkapuli	Pithecellobium dulce	legume	fast growing?	Fruit
Guava	Psidium guajava			Fruit
Pomegranate	Punica granatum			Fruit
Poonga	Pungamia pinnata	legume	fast growing	Oil seeds
Thoongumoonji kaattuva	Samenia saman	legume	fast growing ?
Avaram	Senna auriculata	Legume	fast growing	Medicinal
Ritha	Sapindus mukorossi
Yanai kundumani	Senna elata	Legume	fast growing	Mulch
Thangdi	Senna siamea		fast growing	Mulch
Agathi	Sesbania grandiflora	Legume	fast growing	Edible leaves, Mulch
Sorgum, Paradise tree	Simarouba glauca
Jamun, naaval	Syzygium cumini			Fruit
Yellow bells	Tecoma stans
Teak	Tectona grandis		fast growing	Avenue tree, wind break
Neer Maruthu	Terminalia arjuna			Timber
Badam, Indian Almond	Terminalia catappa			Fruit
Karu Maruthu	Terminalia crenulata			Timber
Poovarasu	Thespesia populnea

PS: The “?” at the end of “fast growing” indicates that we have not seen that species to be fast growing yet.

Almost all of the planted saplings are mulched constantly. Thanks to the bio-mass in our village. I pick up the piles of leaves, twigs, and coconut fronds from the sides of our road before they are burned by the villagers.

Since we don’t have a great infrastructure in place that would enable automated watering, I do the last leg of watering manually. Thus it was extremely important to bring up these planted saplings with very little water and invest in techniques that would help us achieve this goal. Depending on the availability of resources at the time of planting, I chose one of the following methods:

• Planting in Swales: “Swales” is a Permaculture term for on-contour trenches. Advantage: the sapling gets a good collection area; Downside: labour-intensive

• Burying a pot: A clay pot is carefully drilled in a few places and buried alongside the sapling leaving just the neck peeking out of the ground. To water the sapling, this pot is filled with water. Advantage: very economical; Downside: holes can get plugged soon, depending on the soil condition (in which case, a wick made of an old rag can help, but that will also disintegrate sooner or later)

• The Sadhana Forest Way: Although this is a great way, I found that making the wick irrigation bottle was very time consuming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgToFyJyMfI

• Deep Watering Tubes: When I had enough PVC pipes and a drill handy, this is the method I have resorted to: http://www.permaculture.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/deep-pipe-irrigation-by-david-bainbridge.pdf

• Boomerang Berms: When we had enough manpower, we got boomerang berms built around the saplings: www.r-u-g.info/sites/default/files/rainwater_harvesting_presentation.pptx

 -- Hema